Columbia – building retail brands one country at a time

Columbia will be a name familiar to anybody who has gone in search of branded outdoors clothing. In the UK, this quest will have taken place within the context of a host store of the Snow + Rock or Blacks variety. Now the US-based retailer and brand is to take the plunge and open a standalone Columbia store on Kensington High Street in September.  

According to the company, this will be the first of a network of stores in major metropolitan areas across Europe, but a decision remains to be taken about whether there will be a second UK branch. The plan, apparently, is for Columbia to raise its profile beyond the UK consumer’s perception of it as a skiwear brand, making consumers aware of its breadth of offer.

All well and good, and Kensington High Street is certainly a good place to start if you want to make waves in the outdoorwear world as it already has representation of the bulk of the sector’s retailers. The problem is that it is an entirely London-centric view of things and from Columbia’s perspective it may be an unpalatable fact that not everybody in this country who shops visits the capital city – but it is a fact. In case this sounds a little unwelcoming, consider Nokia.

A couple of years ago, the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer opened a flagship store on Regent Street on which it had lavished a budget of about £4m. This was supposed to act as a standard-bearer for the brand and to establish Nokia’s credentials as a retailer as well as a brand. Perhaps this might have worked, but Nokia has pursued a policy that bears comparison with what Columbia has in mind.

Nokia now has a network of global flagships in cities such as London, Moscow and New York. But only one big store in each of the countries involved.And now it is about to embark on a revamp of the London store, where the upper floor has been closed for some months. And whoever thought that putting a lift midway through the ground floor, which prevents views to the left-hand rear area of the shop, perhaps needs to be asked what they were doing. That aside, two years after it opened, Nokia is no closer to being considered anything other than a phone brand than it was when the store opened.

It is good news that a new name is coming to a UK high street, but if Columbia is to succeed as a retailer it will need more than a single store to make this a reality.